There has been an increasing demand for a secondary battery having improved performance for stationary and mobile applications. Batteries with metal negative electrodes are attractive, because they can provide high energy density. Lithium, sodium, and magnesium batteries using a liquid organic electrolyte have been considered, however they present a number of performance and safety issues. Solid-state electrolytes offer improved safety over liquid electrolytes; however, robustness sufficient for commercialization has not yet been demonstrated. In particular, when currently available cells with solid electrolytes are cycled, short-circuits are observed after some number of cycles, believed to be caused by the depositing metal penetrating across the separator, resulting in a loss in performance and potentially unacceptable safety properties.
Therefore, in order to overcome the technical challenges associated with batteries with metal negative electrodes, there remains a need for improved design of solid electrolytes.